What are you Banking on?

I found some SIMPLIFIED, and simultaneously AMPLIFIED, scripture in The Message translation of Luke 12:32-34:

Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

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Pretty interesting words considering the recent years of bank insecurity, recession, and worries about how and where to keep money and treasures. Our security is best not put in banks at times. People and institutions can rob you of your money. What else do you 'bank' on?

A key to great advice appears earlier in this translation. It advises us to relax and respond to God's giving. Know him, and don't worry. Steep ourselves in God's reality, power, and provision. Believe that God knows our concerns. Then don't get self-centered. Generosity, loving others as ourselves, loving God...these give us our real treasure. Our treasure is relationship with each other based on our inner life that knows to whom we belong, and being secure in the love and care of our Father in heaven.

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One of things I treasure so much as I travel with my camera is being on the bank of a lake strewn with wildflowers or a hillside of bluebonnets crowded around an old farm machinery. Such visions remind me that my needs, my food and clothes, all my concerns are being met.

I don't know if you have ever 'steeped' tea. The longer you let the tea stay in the warm water the more flavor and color is infused into the liquid. I love that THE MESSAGE used the word, 'steep' for what we should do with God. We steep ourselves with his nature and love by studying his word, spending time with him, and counting him as our dearest treasure. For, the place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.